Popcorn ceiling

LOL. popcorn ceiling = Pomonok development in Queens.

I know this is going to sound crazy but I have a house on the Jersey Shore that had a popcorn ceiling that I detested. My contractor just scrubbed it off. Have a try in a corner and see how easy it comes off. It is a mess and, of course, it has to be repainted afterwords. But it is a fairly simple process. Here's a video on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWmmjPhC5R4&feature=related

Good luck!

If the popcorn is in a postwar hi-rise with concrete ceilings, you can have a contractor sand it off - messy and time consuming, but it works

Depends on whether it's true popcorn - which can be scraped off - or sand paint. If it's sand paint often the reason they put it up is to hide cracks in wood-joist ceilings caused by the vibration from the apartment above. The sand acts as cement and it holds the plaster together at the seams. If you remove it you might wind up living with a cracked ceiling, which you may like even less.

In the case of Pomonok the popcorn was done to hide imperfections. Not sure if that's relevant here, but somthing to definitely consider.

IN the case of concrete ceiling, I believe it was done because it was cheaper/faster than sheetrocking.

In tract housing throughout the West, they have totally unskilled laborers sheetrock the ceiling, then apply popcorn to hide what the best tape-n-mud would never be able to.

I met a woman in the 1990s, well after everyone else became intolerant of the look, who was willingly having her ceilings popcorned. "But," she noted with refinement, "I'm not having them put gold flecks in the mix ... that's so tacky!"

Thanks guys and NYRENewbie for the video!

If you are renovating and you have popcorn, get rid of it. People hate it. If you aren't renovating, it seems a bit of a nightmare to just do the ceilings. I'd questions whether the money it would cost would be better spend upgrading the kitchen and/or bath, e.g.

I believe that some of that stuff may have asbestos in it which is a hazardous material so you must be very careful & have it professionally done.

I absoutely abhor popcorn ceilings and cringe if I even see them in a hotel or on "House Hunters". For me popcorn would have been a deal breaker when I was looking but that's just one woman's opinion. Fortunately, I don't recall seeing it in Manhattan and I looked at both pre and post war.

Asbestos isn't really that hazardous unless you have prolonged exposure to it (e.g., you work in an asbestos factory) AND you chainsmoke for decades.

I was just reading about the asbestos. I suspect that there is asbestos in it as it is about 30 years old. I was hoping to have the floor, wall (strip / refinish), ceiling and moldings done before I moved in.

Do you know if I need COOP approval for such work or does that depend on the building?

How much would this cost (550sqf)?

What's the risk of hiring someone within the building to do it (few handymen are interested)?

What's the risk of doing kitchen / bathroom later?

My house on Cape Cod had cathedral popcorn ceilings upstairs in the bedrooms and downstairs in the family room. Remove the popcorn and there would still be a messy ceiling left to fix.. We put quarter inch sheetrock over all of it. My guy was the master of sheetrock - not one visible seam anywhere. And when he put the primer coat on, he mixed it with white paint instead of water for an even smoother finish.

I guess painting bare concrete is not a good option?

I am not sure why everyone cringes so much at this, but what do I know. I have sand paint on my ceilings and, while my wife would dearly like to get rid of it (and so would I all things being equal), once you do get rid of it, you will need to skim coat the concrete to get a smooth, neat appearance and repair the imperfections that caused someone to resort to popcorn/sand paint in the first place. I have 14 foot ceilings, 25 exposed concrete beams x 4000 sq feet. Six years ago I was quoted $50k to remove the paint, skim coat everything, and repaint. As I said, the sand paint looks just fine to me.

And, foot thick, 100 year old concrete is going to crack/fissure/chip, and you will be repairing that fancy skim coat each time it does.

Popcorn ceiling, in a concrete building, comes off easily with a spatula. Any handyman should be able to do it. They will have to patch here or there, but it will not be bad. I would say that it will be a few days of work for 550 sq ft if the person knows what they're doing. One week for a clueless owner :-).

BuyingNow: I was recently asked this by a client, did a little research. Here's a contractors blog, you may find some useful information.

http://www.contractortalk.com/f49/popcorn-ceiling-removal-laminate-ceiling-3-8-a-53002/